Homeschool 2.0 » biology

Nature Study and Baby Birds

lynn — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:29:53 +0000

I was recalling some of the fun nature study things we’d done when the kids were younger. The monarch butterflies from Insect Lore were a big hit and it was a fun and sad day when we released the pretty things. Monarchs were a stepping stone to another project our daughter took on the following year, caring for baby birds from Alaska Bird Treatment and Learning Center (Bird TLC).

Bird TLC cares for injured or abandoned birds and needs volunteers to help. Springtime brings in lots of baby birds whose nests were corrupted or abandoned. Jen wanted to try raising some. We completed the morning-long training class and waited for the call. It came several weeks later asking if we could take in a pair of baby robins. These birds were very tiny and had only a few pin feathers; she named them Wilbur and Orville. They came with a recipe for baby bird food which is a combination of dog food, vitamins, nutritional supplements and monkey chow. Bird TLC provided the latter ingredient; good thing, too. Where would I shop for monkey chow? (more…)

Know Your Toads

lynn — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:58:44 +0000

And frogs, and newts and salamanders. I’ve been playing with Amphibiaweb, a project of UC Berkeley. It’s a fun way to learn about the amphibians in your neighborhood.

AmphibiaWeb is an online system enabling anyone with a Web browser to search and retrieve information relating to amphibian biology and conservation.

They’ve got 6,190 species from around the world mapped out in a format easy for kids to use with images, recordings, maps and other technical toad info.

Amphibians here in the frozen north are in limited supply but I did learn that the little frogs we find in the weeds at our cabin in Willow have a name, wood frogs. If you ever wondered what Australia’s nefarious cane toads sound like you can listen to a great recording.
hear call (707.3K MP3 file)

Kids who love to catch frogs and toads and the like and maybe have a few in jars around the house will enjoy this site. Check out this online resource for life science.

HT: Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub

Egg to Chick

lynn — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:30:39 +0000

In this very cool photo series it looks like the egg came first.

Hat Tip: digg